The Hampton-Phoebus football game, recognized nationally this week by the Great American Rivalry Series, lived up to its billing for almost a full half.

Although underdog Hampton was less able to move the ball offensively than perhaps ever before, its defense played so well in the first two quarters that it appeared the Crabbers would go into halftime trailing by just three points. Then the Crabbers fumbled a punt inside their own 10-yard line late in the second quarter.

Phoebus did what good teams do, scoring on Jaylen White’s 3-yard run two plays later. The Phantoms rode that momentum to a 36-0 win over the Crabbers in their Peninsula District game Saturday at Darling Stadium that was, in the end, every bit as dominant as the score suggests.

How locked in were they? The Phantoms’ defense allowed only 33 yards and nary a first down until the final play of the game.

“I actually wanted to hold them to no first downs,” Blunt admitted when he realized late that they had not given up one. “To hold them to one, when you’re talking about a Mike Smith-coached team, with those great assistants he has over there – and he’s always going to have those stellar kids – that’s beautiful in a rivalry game like this.”

The Phantoms’ offense was slow getting started, netting only 47 yards rushing on 18 attempts in the first half. But game MVP Chris Daniels became increasingly hotter as the game went along, completing 13 of 22 passes for 177 yards, including touchdowns of 13 and 17 yards to Barry Hargraves.

Daniels and Hargraves gave the offense its first spark by connecting on curl routes for completions of 11 and 15 yards. That paved the way for Anthony Wallace’s 24-yard field goal that gave the Phantoms a 3-0 lead with 5:08 to play in the first half.

“We thought that space would be open, so we ran button-hooks and curls,” said Hargraves, who had five receptions for 65 yards. “Their defense executed well and stopped the run, but our pass game had ’em.”

To that point, the Hampton defense was as big a story as any. Led by linemen Kyrell McKinney, Adhyim Bagley and Caleb Diaz, the Crabbers forced the Phantoms to punt the first three times they had the ball.

After Wallace’s field goal, the Hampton defense next forced a Phoebus punt and, with little more than a minute remaining, it appeared the Crabbers would go into halftime no more than 3-0 behind. But Isaiah Banks fumbled the punt, Caleb Randolph recovered it for the Phantoms, and White quickly took advantage with his touchdown run to make it 10-0.

“When you’re about to put the defense back on the field, and special teams gives it right back to the offense, that gives you momentum,” Blunt said. “It’s a great thing.

“They had deferred (the opening kickoff) and were going to get the ball to start the second half, so we didn’t want to go into the half with just a three-point lead.”

Hampton compounded its misery by fumbling away the second-half kickoff. Eight plays later, Hargraves caught a 13-yard touchdown pass from Daniels in heavy coverage to make it 17-0.

A bad punt-snap by the Crabbers paved the way for Wallace’s second field goal, a 29-yarder that made it 20-0. Special teams would contribute more for the Phantoms as Thailand Baldwin blocked a Crabbers punt out of the end zone for a safety.

The offense controlled the ball in the second half as the defense continued to dominate, giving the Phantoms a 49-27 advantage in plays and a 280-33 advantage in total yards.

“This was my dream,” Gilliam said of the Phantoms’ dominant win over their rival. “That’s how big it was.”